Thursday, August 29, 2013

feet

Princess Morag has a love/hate relationship with her feet.  She loves one and hates the other.  The right foot, despite it's small size is pretty normal looking and that's good as far as Princess Morag is concerned.  The left foot, well, that's a whole other story.  The princess noted, as a teenager, that he feet and ankles would swell if she had to stand for a long time.  It didn't cause much trouble, but she was diagnosed with primary lymphoedema and warned against any kind of trauma to her foot, or it might lead to permanent scarring/swelling.

Then Princess Morag went to work at summer camp in the USA and a mosquito, or some other bug, decided to feast on the top of her left foot.  The Princess didn't know anything was wrong until suddenly it was bruised and swollen and red, and she went to the hospital to be told it was an infected bite and she had to rest it. Following this infection, her left foot would swell to a greater extent than her right, so it became her "bad foot".  It has caused people to stare, exclaim and point out it's size, much to the princesses displeasure.  She is not keen on drawing attention to herself, so this kind of negative attention is particularly unwelcome.

For the last five years, or maybe more, Princess Morag has endured the private shame of knowing that the already 'bad' foot, was embarrassingly also home to plantar warts/verrucae on it's sole.  It was quite easy to just pretend they weren't there, until more recently when they spread.  Princess Morag procrastinated for a long time in making the appointment with the podiatrist.  And then he said he might have to cut them out!!  Princess Morag did NOT like that idea.  She spent the summer trying to find some courage, and finally made the appointment.  They had become a little painful, so getting rid of them now seemed like a good idea.  Thankfully (maybe) the podiatrist decided to try acid treatment first.  But now her left foot is a gross, painful extremity and Princess Morag is unable to perform all her activities of daily living with ease.  Standing on two feet is something most of us just do without thinking, ditto for walking.  But when it becomes painful and difficult, you realise how much you have been taking for granted.

Princess Morag wants to say sorry to her left foot, for saying it was 'bad' and for calling it 'fat and ugly'.  Because all this time, it has still been performing pretty well, allowing her to stand and walk with ease.  She hopes it will make a full recovery.


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